Tattoo fest-goers earn their stripes in Sturbridge

Sunday

Apr 7, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By James F. Russell CORRESPONDENT

Thousands of tattooists and those wanting their services happily gathered from all over the country this weekend for the 7th annual Massachusetts Tattoo and Arts Festival organized by Zaza Ink Tattoo Shop of West Boylston.

The event at the Sturbridge Host Hotel and Conference Center at times resembled a burlesque show, given the range of dress — and undress — of a segment of the attendees.

A few of the heavily tattooed men were topless — one was nearly bottomless.

Women were seen in fishnet stockings, high heels, skimpy skirts, and a handful were sporting plenty of exposed skin — filled with intricately woven and colorful tattoos.

For the less ostentatious, it was a night on the town, or the chance to claim bragging rights at the daily competitions.

And a chance to rub elbows with the American granddaddy of tattoo artistry, Lyle Tuttle, who basked in the glory of the growing social acceptance of tattooing.

Mr. Tuttle, now 81, and retired from the profession since 1990, said that as a boy he was fascinated by servicemen returning from the war overseas with tattoos on their arms. He got his first tattoo at age 14. Janis Joplin, Jim Croce, Darryl Hall and the Allman Brothers are among the many celebrities he tattooed during his “heyday” in the 1970s.

But back in the 1940s, when Mr. Tuttle was starting out, “tattoos were like stickers on your luggage” — because it was nearly impossible to get one in the United States, he said.

Born and raised on a 160-acre corn farm in Millerton, Iowa, population 40, the tattooing pioneer first set up shop in 1949.

He then joined the U.S. Marines and fought on the Korean peninsula, serving from 1951 to 1955, earning the rank of sergeant.

In 1970, after years of doing five to 25 tattoos each day as a self-described “blue-collar tattooist,” he had earned the money and skill for the big time. He opened in San Francisco, at 37th St. That building was destroyed during the 1989 earthquake.

He also opened his famous Hollywood tattoo parlor at 8418 Sunset Boulevard in 1970.

Flip Wilson, host of the NBC comedy “The Flip Wilson Show” that aired from 1970 to 1974 once asked Mr. Tuttle for a tattoo, of the letter “M.”

“He did M, for ‘marijuana,’ ” Mr. Tuttle said while sipping a black coffee in the Host Hotel lobby.

His first encounter with Janis Joplin did not begin well, although she and members of her band would later confide in him.

“She saw an article about me in the paper, the San Jose Mercury,” and came to the shop with “those dogs, two Samoyeds — I asked her, ‘would you go to the dentist with those dogs?’ ”

He tattooed a black bracelet on her wrist and a one-half-inch red heart with black outline on a section of the left side of her chest.

She visited him the afternoon before her death — that was blamed on a drug overdose.

According to Mr. Tuttle, the singer told him that the recording she was working on was not going well, the manager of the studio was giving her a hard time, and “her boyfriend was cheating on her; some of the members of the band told me that.”

Mr. Tuttle said he often had no idea that his tattoos were going onto famous people.

“A lady came in one day and wanted me to tell her all about tattooing her husband; it was Jim Croce’s wife. I said I never tattooed Jim Croce. She said, ‘Oh yes you did.’ ”

For Alicia Fullem, 36, of Worcester and her husband Paul, 35, the tattoo festival was an opportunity for a date. The husband sat in a prone position as tattoo artist Scott McMahon drew a dragon on his arm.

“Your body is a temple, you have to paint the walls,” Mr. Fullem said.

“It’s fun, it’s a way to express yourself,” said his wife. “I came to get a tattoo; it’s my fourth,” she said.

A change in state law a dozen years ago permitted widespread proliferation of tattoo parlors in Massachusetts.

That development, said Zaza owner Joe Peterson, allowed him and many others to own a profitable business.

The artist festival “is educational and a lot of fun,” he said, and praised Mr. Tuttle. “Lyle has been an inspiration and mentor to me.”

Derek Jackson of Rock Island, Ill., won Friday night’s contest with a black and gray portrait tattooed on Juan Mendoza of Moline, Ill. The portrait is of Denise Mendoza, his mother.

Mr. Jackson, 23, said he earns as much as $4,000 weekly and up to $150,000 per year.

Yvonne Dalton, 59, of Southbridge attended with her daughter, Leslie Heenan, 30, whose arm is covered with a tattoo with a Beatles song lyric: “Still My Guitar Gently Weeps” in memory of her dad, who passed away eight years ago.

“My grandfather was a tattoo artist, the Great Renaud of Southbridge,” Ms. Dalton said. He lived from 1890 to 1964.

The three-day Massachusetts Tattoo and Arts Festival began Friday. Today’s show is from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $15.